AmjJu°ner,'i89hiarm'}  Abstracts  from  the  French  Journals.  285 
following:  Citric  syrup,  ioogm. ;  red  Bordeaux  wine,  250  gm. ; 
tincture  of  lemon-peel,  1  gm. ;  water,  650  gm. 
Starch  Transformed  to  Dextrin  by  Means  of  the  Butyric 
Ferment. — At  the  meeting  of  March  4,  of  the  Societe  de  Pharma- 
cie,  M.  Villiers  stated  that  the  above  transformation  could  be  pro- 
duced without  the  aid  of  diastase.  To  effect  this  he  passes  steam 
through  a  mixture  of  starch  with  water,  places  it  in  a  glass  con- 
tainer and  adds  the  butyric  ferment.  The  mass  should  be  kept  at 
a  temperature  of  1040.  On  the  following  morning  the  mass  is  found 
to  have  liquefied  and  the  starch  is  converted  into  dextrin ;  no  mal- 
tose is  produced.  As  .secondary  products  the  liquid  contains  a 
small  amount  of  butyric  acid  ;  also  a  crystallized  body  of  the  same 
centesimal  composition  as  dextrin,  and  having  a  rotary  power  very 
similar  to  that  of  dextrin.  After  its  action  upon  the  starch  the 
butyric  ferment  undergoes  certain  morphological  modifications ;  its 
organisms  have  no  longer  the  form  of  moving  rods  ;  they  become 
immobile  and  are  endowed,  apparently,  with  a  sort  of  head. 
Chatinine,  Alkaloid  of  Valerian  Root. — M.  Waliszewski,  a 
pharmacist  of  Clichy,  has  isolated  an  alkaloid  from  valerian  and  has 
named  it  chatinine,  in  honor  of  M.  Chatin,  late  director  of  the  Ecole 
de  Pharmacie  of  Paris.  To  obtain  it,  he  removes  from  valerian  root, 
by  distillation,  its  valerianic  acid  and  volatile  products.  Then  he 
exhausts  the  root  by  decoction  in  distilled  water,  and  clears  the  liquid 
with  acetate  of  lead.  The  lead  is  eliminated  by  sulphuric  acid  or 
sulphuretted  hydrogen.  The  filtered  liquor  is  evaporated  to  the 
consistence  of  a  soft  extract,  which  is  treated  by  90  percent,  alcohol. 
The  filtrate  is  distilled  and  the  residuum  is  taken  up  with  distilled 
water ;  this  product  is  evaporated  to  the  consistence  of  an  extract 
and  is  treated  with  bicarbonate  of  soda  and  ether;  the  ether 
is  washed  with  distilled  water ;  the  liquid  is  now  evapo- 
rated and  the  residuum,  which  is  chatinine,  is  treated  by  an 
acid,  preferably  hydrochloric.  As  valerian  root  contains  an  ammonia- 
cal  salt,  which  remains  with  the  chatinine  during  the  above  opera- 
tions, the  product  must  be  treated  with  95  per  cent,  alcohol,  in 
which  the  chloride  of  ammonium  remains  insoluble.  The  chatinine 
salts  have  the  general  characters  of  the  alkaloids,  and,  like 
them,  are  precipitated  by  picric  acid,  bichloride  of  platinum,  Valser's 
reagent,  tannin,  Bouchardat's  reagent,  etc. —  Union  Phar.,  March  15  ; 
Repert.  de  Phar.,  April  10. 
